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Mouth at front, top jaw extendable, usually very much so; premaxilla with rear end expanded, without bony process behind; small teeth present on both jaws and sometimes on the front of the roof of the mouth; gill rakers generally large; large eyes; two well-separated dorsal fins, the first with II-IX spines, the second with I front spine; anal fin with I front spine; pectoral fin inserted high on body, above mid-level of eye; pelvic fin on belly, I, 5; tail fin forked; scales smooth, cycloid, sometimes with ruffled rear margins; with a silver stripe along mid-side.

This American family contains about 120 species in 13 genera; five of those genera with 14 species occur in our region, 11 as endemics. These fishes are small schooling forms found in habitats ranging from freshwater to marine, in tropical to warm temperate areas.

Jordan , D.S. and Bollman, C.H., 1890., Descriptions of new species of fishes collected at the Galapagos Islands and along the coast of the United States of Colombia, 1887-88, by the U.S. Fish Commission steamer 'Albatross'., Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., 12:149-183.

Jordan , D.S. and Evermann, B.W., 1896., The fishes of North and Middle America: a descriptive catalogue of the species of fish-like vertebrates found in the waters of North America, north of the Isthmus of Panama. Part I., Bull. U.S. Nat. Mus., 47:1-1240.

Jordan , D.S. and Gilbert, C.H., 1880., Notes on a collection of fishes from San Diego, California., Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., 3:23-34.

Jordan , D.S. and Gilbert, C.H., 1882., Description of thirty-three new species of fishes from Mazatlan, Mexico., Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., 4(1881):338-365.

Love, M.S., Mecklenburg, C.W., Mecklenburg, T.A., Thorsteinson, L.K., 2005., es of the West Coast and Alaska: a checklist of North Pacific and Artic Ocena species from Baja California to the Alaska-Yukon border., U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, Biological Resources Division, 288pp.